Mystical Thinking.

Who can spot the deliberate error in the title? You may be a mystic, or you may be a thinker, but you may not be both at the same time. Mysticism being the absence of thought, and thought being the absence of mysticism. Something is whatever it is, until you run it through your thought-machine, ending up with whatever you think it is. One may learn to suspend thought, at will, thus attaining the ability to become mystical. This does not mean one is unable to think. Only that one now has the choice of whether to think, or not.

Highly recommended: the ability to not-think, when thinking does not serve.

Phoenix

So if a person engages in thinking half of the time and in mysticism the other half, may they not be called a 'mystical thinker'? Like a peaceful warrior, a transcendent nihilist, a moral capitalist or, dare I say, an intelligent Republican?

I'm all for straightening out semantics and the stereotypes they nest, but I think mysticism and thought are two sides of the same coin both, if used well, leading to the same conclusions. I think it takes the one to fully recognize and appreciate the truth of the other.

As usual I disagree. But don't let that bother you. Mysticism can not be reached or realized by way of the mind. Which is why drugs may show a vague image of other realms, but can never transport you to them. The mind is for mind stuff. Repairing tumble dryers, watching the visuals, man, etc. The soul, if indeed you have one, is used to reach behind and beyond the material. The eye of the needle. No brain is going to squeeze you through that. You must leave the brain, and everything else, behind, to go there.

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Phoenix

I think the mind is important in order to help a person arrive at a conclusion or belief allowing them to leave the mind behind; we didn't choose to start our minds but we can choose to stop them. Also I do not believe we are born in a disgusting ego merely to suffer, I do not believe it's some cruel joke--not because the universe is necessarily benevolent but because it is efficient and minimizes waste--rather I believe we need to go through the trials of the ego to gain experience and individuality. If we were suddenly born into a mystical, immortal state without ever having known scarcity, want, simple pleasures and the accomplishments of effort, I could see us quickly becoming conceited, lackadaisical and ultimately unable to survive.

Well, if you gotta believe something, then that is not a bad belief. I cite my various meetings with retards and not-all-there types, over the years. They seem curiously content with their lot. Unlike the clever ones. Which leads me to wonder if the brain defeats itself, more often than not. All Zen is, really, is the suspension of the thinking-state. Easier for some than for others.

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Phoenix

It's funny, on any spirituality forum we'd be bashed for neither of us proposing the path of the heart as the way to move beyond the mind. That honestly makes me feel warm and fuzzy, maybe you and I are bonding (please detect my whimsicality).